NURSING HOMES & HDB RESALE PRICES: IS NIMBY ALIVE?

Abstract

This paper examines public attitudes towards nursing homes by estimating the effects of an increased proximity to nursing homes on final transaction prices in the public resale market. The results show no evidence of a nursing home effect on resale housing prices across 2012 to 2019. These findings are consistent across all specifications of the hedonic price model and the dynamic Differences-inDifferences analysis, suggesting that nursing home proximity is not in fact capitalized into property prices. That being said, a heterogenous effects analysis reveals two specific circumstances in which nursing homes are found to have a negative impact on housing prices: when the nursing home in question is a publicly run Voluntary Welfare Organization (VWO), and when the nursing home is located in a Housing and Development Board (HDB) estate with a younger age demographic.